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Red card non-ISO accredited software houses

7th May 2018

When you are looking for a software provider to partner with what do you base your decision on? Do you prefer to hire a large or small provider? Do you base your decision on price? Perhaps you check out the number of awards the software house has won?

No doubt about it – there are many criteria that a software provider has to meet when it comes to servicing a broker or insurance businesses. However, if you’re the decision maker in the process of which software provider to hire, one thing you should never tolerate is poor quality service.

Making the wrong decision could impact your business financially and can also dent your reputation – and that’s something that can be lost in an instant even though it took years if not decades to build up. It’s vital to carry out diligent checks on software providers and one of the things we believe a software house should not be without is the ISO 9001 stamp of approval.

If you’re not familiar with what it is, ISO9001 is an internationally recognized quality ‘kitemark’ demonstrating that the organisation has met stringent regulatory requirements and is focused on meeting customer expectations and delivering customer satisfaction.

We’ve just recently successfully renewed our ISO 9001 accreditation and we’re proud of this because it’s testament to our commitment to quality standards. It’s commonplace for many companies to have this accreditation – a simple Google search shows that over one million organisations worldwide are independently certified.

However, there are also many that don’t have it and some prefer it that their customers turn a blind eye to the fact that they’ve omitted to go through the process of getting one. If you come across a company that doesn’t have this accreditation it’s our view that you give them the red card. Tell them to go and don’t let them pitch for your business.

We have always been passionate about our service delivery and securing the ISO 9001 stamp of approval year in and year out, reminds us of the need not to ignore the fundamental basics of quality service. It gives our customers added assurance that we take compliance seriously and that they are in safe hands.

We feel that ISO compliance is business critical, but unfortunately not all software houses (even some of the leading ones) believe they should go through the process of getting accredited.

A common criticism of the ISO 9000 and 9001 is the amount of time, money and paperwork that is required for registration. Other companies are worried about their company image if the certification process fails so they are not willing to take the risk. However, we feel these reasons are not enough to justify non-compliance.

Earlier this year we wrote a post about how vital it is to find the right service provider – particularly one that doesn’t suffer from repeat interruptions. Data is vital for any business – as is the protection of it. If data can’t be accessed the make the right business decisions, money and reputations can be lost.

Some software houses cut corners and don’t ensure that they have the right contingency measures in place to deal with such interruptions. Meanwhile, others shirk the basics like having an ISO 9001 accreditation. Poor quality service in any industry should not be tolerated. Make the switch to a software provider that makes good quality service a priority.